School's Attorney Forcedto Talk

June 2, 2001|By Ellis Berger Miami Bureau

MIAMI — The lead prosecutor in the Holy Cross Academy murder case made clear in court Friday that she is just as serious about pursuing the killer's claims of being sexually abused by two priests as she is about the heinous crime to which he confessed.

Assistant State Attorney Gail Levine has been trying for almost two months to compel Holy Cross' in-house lawyer, Joseph Blonsky, to answer questions about its operations, including issues related to its practice of recruiting teenage monastic candidates from Ukraine. She finally got her wish Friday.

By late afternoon, Blonsky, accompanied by his own lawyer, H. Scott Fingerhut, was giving a sworn statement in a conference room at the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, across the street from the courthouse.

Circuit Judge Manuel A. Crespo ordered him to tell what he knew about such subjects as the personal lives of the priests, how they selected the young candidates, who paid for the cars some of them drive, and how much money was sent to their homes in Ukraine.

Whatever his answers, which were not immediately made public, the nature of the questions themselves is revealing about the case, in which some of the 15 lawyers hired by Holy Cross's insurance company complain that Levine has been acting more like a defense attorney than a prosecutor.

Her questions seem to go to the heart of the defense's case, not the prosecution's, that circumstances surrounding life at Holy Cross, at 12425 SW 72nd St. near Kendall, may have contributed to the killer's state of mind.

One of the monastic candidates, Mykhaylo Kofel, 18, who was brought here almost five years ago, has confessed to the March 25 stabbing death of Sister Michelle Lewis, 39. Her body was found with 92 stab wounds on the floor of her convent house bedroom.

In his confession to homicide detectives, Kofel does not offer a definitive reason for the murder, but alleges he was verbally abused by Lewis, who was preparing to be a nun, and sexually abused by his father and by Holy Cross' co-founders, Abbot Gregory F.G. Wendt and the Rev. Damian J.A. Gibault. Both clerics and Kofel's father have denied his allegations of abuse.

Levine told Crespo that Blonsky's testimony is relevant since she could not subpoena his fellow corporate officer, Wendt, because "he is the subject of a criminal investigation."

She said she is trying to find out how Kofel might have been affected by the fact -- first reported by the Sun-Sentinel -- that Wendt adopted another of the Ukrainian students, Petro Terenta, 20, and put him on a corporate board with himself and Gibault.

"I'd like to know how this kid, how does a monk, get on a board," Levine said.

Blonsky prepared the papers for the corporation, which lists Terenta as an officer and the registered agent, and uses as its address a single-family house in the 3400 block of Southwest 24th Street in Miami. Property records show the house is owned by Wendt's mother, who has been living at Holy Cross for several months.

"Terenta has not been honest with us," Levine said. One thing she pointed out was that he did not reveal that he was Wendt's adopted son.

At the latest in a series of pretrial hearings, Fingerhut argued that the Florida and U.S. constitutions prohibit prosecutors "from engaging in an overly broad effort to compel testimony" that concerns a religious organization.

In a memorandum submitted to Crespo, Fingerhut said important First Amendment issues are at stake, "notwithstanding the refrain of the state that anybody in this case who invokes privilege, or even who retains counsel, for that matter, has somehow endeavored to obstruct the state's investigation."

But Crespo, who previously rejected Blonsky's claim of attorney-client privilege, again ruled for the prosecution -- and indirectly for the Public Defenders Office, whose lawyers represent Kofel.

Crespo said it was precisely because of the ongoing investigation into the murder and Kofel's allegations that Blonsky had to submit to questioning.

Ellis Berger can be reached at eberger@sun-sentinel. com or 305-810-5004.